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Roy Moore leaves the stage with a gift for both Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans won’t have to share the stage with him ever again, and the Democrats, who tried and failed to win even one of a succession of special elections this year, have finally got what they couldn’t get on their own.

The ability to respond smartly to controversy is a measure of responsible leadership. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan just flunked a test. The Turkish president-cum-caliph with a tart tongue has flown off the handle over the U.S. foreign policy turn toward Israel, demonstrating why he is an unreliable ally. Eliminating common ground undermines the basis for friendship.

There’s never a dull moment in California. Almost a universe unto itself, the westernmost continental state has something for every lifestyle, American or otherwise. But its 40 million inhabitants have to contend with nature like no other state, a point driven home by the late-autumn outbreak of killer wildfires. The treasure that is California comes with considerable added peril when fire joins earthquake.

Life can be almost good anywhere if you’re a billionaire. George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire who once shorted the British pound to bring down a conservative government in Britain, has been on a rant that the government in his native Hungary has grown so oppressive that life there is more miserable than it was during the occupation by the Soviet Union, which was the ultimate socialist experiment. Mr. Soros probably thinks life in modern Hungary, with free speech and free elections that don’t always go the Soros way, is as oppressive as Donald Trump’s America.

President Trump’s announcement that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital changes everything, and nothing. On the one hand, it is simply a recognition of reality and U.S. law. More than two decades ago Congress enacted a law requiring the State Department to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv, the Israeli commercial capital, to Jerusalem.

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All of Arabia (and Iran, too) is not worth the life of one American soldier as the price of conquest, but securing America against the threat of radical Islamic terrorism is worth whatever it takes. Americans have no taste for colonial conquest, which is fundamental to the ideals of the republic. But neither do Americans cut and run when the wind is up.

The angry and occasionally violent left has drawn the battle lines and demands that America choose a side. On one side, in the view from the left, are the liberals who call themselves "progressives," pious bearers of righteousness, devoid of bad motives and without original sin. On the other side is everyone else, deplorables, yahoos, bigots, racists and other bad people whose unpardonable sin is that they voted for Donald Trump. "Deplorables" have no rights, and the mob is entitled to impose "justice."

Crowds gathered with eager anticipation. There were runs on "eclipse sunglasses," with 7-Eleven running out early, and Amazon accused of selling sunglasses that weren't guaranteed to keep out the right rays. Amazon might deliver on the protective gear, so the street wisdom went, but you might go blind.

The Obama administration decreed six years ago that the national parks could sell soda pop but not water to visitors seeking to slake their thirst on trails through the splendor of nature. Sugar water yes, plain water no.

Imran Awan is a Pakistani-born computer whiz who worked for Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and for dozens of Democrats in Congress. He and his wife have been indicted on four criminal counts of bank fraud and lying to investigators.

Putting "America first" is what Americans expect of every president, and despite its isolationist history in the months leading up to World War II, the words "America first" can put a lump in many an American throat. "America first" was one of the slogans Donald Trump rode into the White House.

What's good for American children is good for America's future. A growing number of states are forgetting that -- if not in word, then in deed. The trend toward increasing legalization of marijuana is resulting in rising numbers of kids requiring medical treatment or hospitalization for narcotic intoxication.

President Trump is "seriously considering" pardoning Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff who was convicted July 31 of misdemeanor contempt of court for ignoring a judge's order to quit detaining those he suspected of being illegal immigrants.

Nothing President Trump can say will satisfy the mob. Scheming since the morning after the November election to reverse the result, the mob is on a holy crusade to destroy Trump the interloper, and the president himself keeps assisting the project.

The American economy has been in a funk for a decade. Donald Trump was elected largely on his promise to see the economy regain traction and resume speed on the road to prosperity. There are encouraging signs that his strategy of releasing the regulatory brakes is working. Combined with changes in immigration policy, the years in the doldrums may soon be at an end.

"Experience is the teacher of all things," said Julius Caesar. The mighty ruler of Rome would know, but considering the ancient emperor's pointed encounter with sharp knives some things can be better learned through observation at a safe distance.

Lawyers are always looking for clients, but — until now — they have to find a client who has actually suffered harm before filing a lawsuit seeking damages for harm. But lawyers for five newly reconstructed women, each identified only as Jane Doe to preserve anonymity, have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington arguing that President Trump's tweet that he would bar transsexuals from serving in the military services violates both the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment and the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

"Experience is the teacher of all things," said Julius Caesar. The mighty ruler of Rome would know, but considering the ancient emperor's pointed encounter with sharp knives some things can be better learned through observation at a safe distance.

Lawyers are always looking for clients, but -- until now --they have to find a client who has actually suffered harm before filing a lawsuit seeking damages for harm. But lawyers for five newly reconstructed women, each identified only as Jane Doe to preserve anonymity, have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington arguing that President Trump's tweet that he would bar transsexuals from serving in the military services violates both the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment and the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

Acombination of falling birthrates among the native-born and the influx of hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees from the Middle East threatens to swamp the indigenous European culture from which America sprang. Preserving the best of the culture will be the responsibility of the emerging generations, and the size of that responsibility is only now coming clear.

Everybody talks a good game of peace, goodwill and other good stuff from the sidelines of the noisy war of words between the United States and North Korea, but none of those sideline warriors wants to be seen doing any of the heavy lifting.

Puerto Rico continues to struggle with the consequences of irresponsibly running up debt. It owes debtors about $70 billion, and a default on debt which was due to be fully repaid by last month has made things worse. The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, enacted last year after President Obama and House Speaker Paul Ryan applied pressure on Congress, was supposed to prevent things like that. Instead it threatens to accelerate the rate of collapse.

Sending a defeated rival to the penitentiary is not the American way (except, maybe, in New Jersey, Illinois or Louisiana). But in a swamp there's always an alligator eager to bite off any fingers searching in the murk for the drain plug.